Hell hath no fury like an AFL system scorned

When Tania Hird spoke out about the suspension of her husband as Essendon coach, she was subjected to a barrage of sexist outrage usually associated with the 1950s, writes Louise Milligan.

Tania Hird is "just a suburban housewife". Tania Hird "needs to shut up". Tania Hird needs plastic surgery. Tania Hird has already had plastic surgery and they didn't do a good job. James Hird should "control those around him". James Hird needs to keep Tania Hird on a "leash". Tania Hird is stupid. Tania Hird is a goose. Tania Hird is merely delivering her husband's lines. Tania Hird is the Yoko Ono of Essendon. Tania Hird is upsetting the maligned fans of Essendon. Tania Hird is a "dumb bitch".

These are all actual things said about Tania Hird, wife of James Hird, over the past few days. From senior club officials, to hallowed football writers, to grumpy fans of other clubs, to Twitter trolls. Hell hath no fury like an AFL system scorned.

Last Thursday night, ABC TV's 7.30 program aired my interview with Tania Hird in a story about claims of a bullying culture within the AFL. Ms Hird said she believed James Hird was a scapegoat in the Essendon drugs in sport scandal. She pointed out that he'd never pleaded guilty to anything, was never found guilty of anything, and the bargaining system that ultimately saw him accept a one-year suspension was fundamentally flawed.

It was, mind you, a story that included four men with similar claims. But their concerns somehow largely disappeared into the ether. The AFL mates decided the lady doth protest too much. The next day I woke up and thought I must have been catapulted into the 1950s. 'Shut up, Tania Hird, and get back into the kitchen of your Toorak mansion', appeared to be the vibe of the thing. Don't you know there's football to be played? The timing is "appalling". How dare you upset the football with your claims of lack of due process or natural justice? Go away.

Of course, we're not in the 1950s before second-wave feminism. We're in the "mate, mate, mate" world of AFL right now. A code that, latterly, has prided itself on its appeals to women, its culture of dignity and respect on and off the field, its willingness to elevate women to high office. But if the treatment of Tania Hird is anything to go by, that's all marketing guff. The ladies are only all right if they don't upset the hierarchy.

The idea that James Hird was gone because his wife had been let off the leash started early Friday morning. First off the mark was Mr Football, Eddie McGuire. On his Triple M Hot Breakfast show, Eddie McGuire confidently predicted "I don't think we'll see James Hird coach Essendon again". Around the same time over at Channel Nine's Today, Karl Stefanovic was predicting Hird already was sacked. Of course, that was not true. Someone was spinning it, though. And why was he being sacked? For the words of his wife. James Hird has been gagged by the AFL's "non-disparagement" clause in his settlement agreement and by the Essendon chairman, Paul Little. So of course, I was not at liberty to interview him. Paul Little is the one who later said on 3AW's Neil Mitchell program that Hird needed to "control those around him". That's Tania, apparently. Now, I'm no industrial lawyer, but I'm guessing that if we start binding people's spouses in their workplace agreements, we're getting into problematic territory. And I thought we had got past the era where husbands had to "control" wives.

Patrick Smith is an absolute legend of football commentary. He has been critical of the AFL's processes. But when a woman does the same thing, he dismisses her as "Lady Tania", off to "Paris in the Spring".

"I have a lot of sympathy for the Essendon supporters and the club", AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou opined when asked about my story on Friday morning; he too was gutted at the dreadful "timing" of Tania Hird's claims that he might not be running his operation in as top notch away as he'd like to think. Essendon was playing its first game of the season, Dustin Fletcher was notching up a wonderful 379 games for the club. Apparently these elite athletes, who have been training all summer under club legend Mark 'Bomber' Thompson, could be stymied by some discussions by their suspended coach's wife about the flawed governance practices of the AFL. Except that didn't happen. Essendon romped it home against North Melbourne. And as for the fans, I am on Twitter. Twitter is a place where people get very angry. Twitter is a place where football fans get fired up. Of the litany of messages I have personally received from Essendon fans since the story broke, only two are not supportive of Tania and James Hird.

"Now you said you like to take notes," snapped columnist Patrick Smith in The Australian, referring to Tania Hird's room full of notes taken as she bore witness to the machinations surrounding her husband and the Essendon supplements saga. "Grab a pen. Get a pad. We are going a'jotting. Take this down for starters. You and your suspended coach of a husband need to leave the club immediately. Just walk away."

It might as well have started "sit down, girlie". The tone reminded me of how the 1960s male advertising executives in Mad Men spoke to their winsome secretaries when dictating a memo. Patrick Smith is an absolute legend of football commentary. He has been critical of the AFL's processes. But when a woman does the same thing, he dismisses her as "Lady Tania", off to "Paris in the Spring". A spoiled princess whose husband should be sacked because she has the temerity to speak out against what she perceives is an injustice. Criticism is one thing, presuming he can tell her what to do is another.

And then there was Caroline Wilson at The Age: "If Hird thought he was smart allowing his wife to speak for him then he has outsmarted himself. If Tania Hird thought it smart to continue her campaign against Demetriou, then her focus only underlined her stupidity."

If Tania Hird is right, if James Hird has taken a one-year suspension simply because it was made clear to him that there would be huge consequences for him and his club if he didn't, well, call me old-fashioned, but I reckon that's worth a look at.

OK, so first, Tania Hird, a former corporate lawyer, is stupid. And second, Tania Hird's decisions are made for her by her husband. While, it is true, most would say it's implausible that she made the decision to speak on 7.30 against her husband's wishes, there's a long distance between that and Wilson's later claim on ABC's Offsiders program that James Hird engineered the interview. She is but a mouthpiece, a cipher, a woman who does what her bloke tells her. Caroline Wilson is a gutsy lady and a decorated journalist. She takes no prisoners and good on her for that. I'll bet that like me, she would be pretty cranky if anyone said her words about anything were those of her husband.

Injustice is blind. It doesn't matter where you live or how attractive you are. It eats away at you. Rightly or wrongly, it is eating away at Tania Hird. And if Tania Hird is right, if James Hird has taken a one-year suspension simply because it was made clear to him that there would be huge consequences for him and his club if he didn't, well, call me old-fashioned, but I reckon that's worth a look at.

I don't hold a firm view at this point on what happened at Essendon. And I think I shouldn't until there's some sort of definite ruling on all of this. That's public.

Debate is a good thing. Free speech is a good thing. I spoke to many people off the record for my story, people who were scared that if they did what Tania Hird did, their livelihoods or their clubs would be threatened. Judging by what's now happening, it seems they were right on the money. Don't stick your head above the parapet in AFL land. It'll get blasted off.

Rest assured, this debate is going on behind closed doors. This debate is raging down phone lines, at club functions, in online footy chatrooms. But to do it the night before game day? Forget it. To do it if you happen to be blonde and conventionally pretty and live in a lovely big house and are off to France for a few months because your club is still paying your husband big money because, you say, no court or other proper regulatory body has (yet) found he did anything wrong and you feel like you are all in something out of Kafka? Are you kidding? Shut up.

I am not a defender of Tania Hird, but I am a defender of her right to free speech. Tania Hird is, I am sure, like the rest of us, not a saint. Tania Hird has, by her own admission, led a fairly charmed existence. Tania Hird's husband has had some very serious questions asked of him and his club. Many of those questions hang, frustratingly, in the balance. But take all of that out of the equation for a minute. Focus on the process. Because, you know, reputations are at stake. And you can't buy a reputation, no matter how many Toorak mansions you own nor how much time you spend in France. And then focus on the way a woman has been treated since she dared to open her mouth.

Louise Milligan is a reporter for the ABC TV's 7.30 program. View her full profile here.